Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme G5 Laptop reviewed - Flagship ThinkPad with more CPU power

[Redaktion]

The new ThinkPad X1 Extreme G5 implements current Alder Lake CPUs combined with liquid metal thermal paste, optional 5G compatibility as well as a high resolution 4K touchscreen with full AdobeRGB coverage. The device can even be equipped with GeForce RTX 3080 Ti - the fastest GPU around.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Extreme-G5-Laptop-reviewed-Flagship-ThinkPad-with-more-CPU-power.672968.0.html

[NikoB]

Apparently marketers decided to make fun of technically illiterate buyers of this "miracle of technology".
--
Well, firstly, Lenovo is again deliberately lying in psref about laptop support for 8k@60Hz resolution on the HDMI port, although any adequate person with basic knowledge in arithmetic can easily calculate, knowing the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth of 42Gb/s (excluding overhead traffic) that 7680x4320x24(bit)x60 in 4:4:4 lossless mode requires at least 48Gbps of pure data excluding service traffic. Not to mention 30bit (HDR), where you need even more... Support is only provided with lossy DSC compression, but this is not a monitor mode.

8k@60Hz at 4:4:4 lossless at 24 bit only supports full Display Port 2.0 (4 lanes x in UHBR20 mode). But this is not here, so the laptop does not support lossless 8k mode for monitors. Movie/TV only.
--
The Extreme prefix should mean that all the hardware works, at least, at the limit of its performance, according to the specification and even better! But what do we see in reality? Let's start...

The processor does not even reach the typical PL2 level of 115W according to the Intel datasheet for 12700H. But this is the "Extreme" version of the laptop, right? So the owner has the right to expect at least 130-150W per impulse(turbo) mode, not even the typical 115W from Intel is not used. But it is a fail, as it does not even compare with some ordinary laptops...

Go ahead, the screen is only 60Hz, although 4k@120Hz screens have been around for a long time – owner might use 120Hz from psu and 60 from battery. Here, however, for some reason, a touchscreen in 16" is attached, apparently this limited the developers. But why?

Next, we move on to RAM. Well, it's okay that it's single-channel (unlike the author of the review, the owner, of course, will immediately buy a second 32GB memory plank, although Lenovo's greed is simply amazing at a price of 3500 euros and a penny cost of 64GB DDR5 4800 - it would be better if they immediately soldered LPDDR5 6000, which was promised in another laptop, namely "Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X" (see newest review), where even with the LPDDR5 5200 in reality (yes, yes, Lenovo simply cheated buyers here in psref for it), where the memory obviously works almost 2 times faster in dual-channel mode, which is clear you can see by the speed of the memory in the "Extreme" version in single-channel mode - it is enough to multiply the speed in single-channel by 2 times in the mind... Those, a laptop for 1150 euros from Lenovo turned out to be more than 1.5 times faster in terms of speed of ram. It turns out that the "Pro" version is cooler than the "Extreme", Lenovo? Is it okay, marketers?

We go further, picking substances "Extreme" from Lenovo. We look at the exhaust temperature - it again exceeds 50C and the exhaust definitely goes straight to the screen. How long will the panel electronics(limited for max 50-55C) last under such loads and temperatures above 50C, Lenovo? Here it is definitely an Extreme version - the probability of being left without a screen is maximum, with such prolonged loads and temperatures!

Now let's move to the videochip from NVidia. What we see in TDP is 95W, although in Legions 130-140. It is obvious that even up to a certain norm it falls short, not to mention the "Extreme" version.

Maybe it is "extremely" quiet, therefore, with an average load? Again, the owner is waiting for a complete fail. See newest review about notebookcheck.net/The-fastest-Core-i7-12700H-laptop-you-can-buy-Lenovo-Legion-5-15IAH7H-review.669755.0.html

Only 29.3dB@103W(L5)...vs...46dB@138W...  2.4kg vs. 2.1kg...
Every +6dB is twice as loud. Thus, the cheap(and faster) Legion 5 is about 5 times quieter according review, while consuming only 27% less in an "average" load. So which model do we really have "Extreme" in a good way and a bad way? Extreme noise? Oh, yes...

Maybe it consumes extremely little and therefore with extremely long battery life? And here is a fail.

Lenovo - please remove "Extreme" from the name, do not disgrace yourself. There is nothing "Extreme" here, because of which someone will reach for their wallet to shell out as much as 3500 euros. Well, maybe 1500...then it's ok for buy.

[Jorge Riquelme]

Good review, as always.

I bought a X1 Extreme Gen2 at the end of 2019 and was nothing but problems (mainly keyboard, thermals and drivers problems).

After a 14-month long nightmare and a lawsuit threat, I got a new X1 Extreme Gen3 as a free replacement in may 2021.

The Gen3 has been a much better experience, but not without small issues: for example, trackpad goes crazy at times and I have to close the lid and reopen to fix - I will have to use the warranty in order to repair this, but not yet.

But one problem that really annoys me is that the integrated Intel UHD graphics included on 9th, 10th and even 11th gen Intel CPUs simply cannot handle the 4K display resolution, even at GUI level. Anmiations and even webpages scroll isn't smooth, Excel is laggy, etc. Fortunately Lenovo has the option to disable Integrated graphics in BIOS and let only discrete graphics (GeForce) to work, so this fixes this, obviously with a killer impact on battery life (worse that already is).

So, the new Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics included in the Gen5, how does it work with the 4K panel? Even with a Twitter webpage scroll the Gen2 and Gen3 with UHD suffers.

Thanks.

[Victor]

But one problem that really annoys me is that the integrated Intel UHD graphics included on 9th, 10th and even 11th gen Intel CPUs simply cannot handle the 4K display resolution, even at GUI level. Anmiations and even webpages scroll isn't smooth, Excel is laggy, etc. Fortunately Lenovo has the option to disable Integrated graphics in BIOS and let only discrete graphics (GeForce) to work, so this fixes this, obviously with a killer impact on battery life (worse that already is).

So, the new Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics included in the Gen5, how does it work with the 4K panel? Even with a Twitter webpage scroll the Gen2 and Gen3 with UHD suffers.

Agree 100%.

All laptops with integrated GPU have this problem. That is why I only buy X1 Extreme, where I can disable integrated GPU, and run 2 external 4K screens using discrete GPU.

[NikoB]

The whole problem rests on the monstrously slow RAM of modern PCs, which already at least 3 times does not correspond to the required speed, i.e. from 120 GB / s, and preferably 200. That is why the built-in video chip slows down, because it has to share the system memory bandwidth with the OS and other devices, which are also very greedy. The dedicated video memory of a discrete video chip is many times faster than the system memory. But this is also a problem - when swapping system ram<>vram is still limited by the speed of system memory. Even in games with an "infinite" terrain map.

Well, using any laptop in single-channel mode (including with memory sticks of different sizes) is pure stupidity, which is guaranteed to lead to friezes.

Therefore, tests in single-channel mode on this site are simply meaningless.

[cvel]

I have the same panel on my P1 Gen 5, and I have a higher measured brightness on it,

Was this done not on HDR? because when I turn on HDR it goes down when not in HDR Content.

I got a read of around 540 nits on this same panel.

[Natasha..Romanov]

Apparently marketers decided to make fun of technically illiterate buyers of this "miracle of technology".
--
Well, firstly, Lenovo is again deliberately lying in psref about laptop support for 8k@60Hz resolution on the HDMI port, although any adequate person with basic knowledge in arithmetic can easily calculate, knowing the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth of 42Gb/s (excluding overhead traffic) that 7680x4320x24(bit)x60 in 4:4:4 lossless mode requires at least 48Gbps of pure data excluding service traffic. Not to mention 30bit (HDR), where you need even more... Support is only provided with lossy DSC compression, but this is not a monitor mode.

8k@60Hz at 4:4:4 lossless at 24 bit only supports full Display Port 2.0 (4 lanes x in UHBR20 mode). But this is not here, so the laptop does not support lossless 8k mode for monitors. Movie/TV only.
--
The Extreme prefix should mean that all the hardware works, at least, at the limit of its performance, according to the specification and even better! But what do we see in reality? Let's start...

The processor does not even reach the typical PL2 level of 115W according to the Intel datasheet for 12700H. But this is the "Extreme" version of the laptop, right? So the owner has the right to expect at least 130-150W per impulse(turbo) mode, not even the typical 115W from Intel is not used. But it is a fail, as it does not even compare with some ordinary laptops...

Go ahead, the screen is only 60Hz, although 4k@120Hz screens have been around for a long time – owner might use 120Hz from psu and 60 from battery. Here, however, for some reason, a touchscreen in 16" is attached, apparently this limited the developers. But why?

Next, we move on to RAM. Well, it's okay that it's single-channel (unlike the author of the review, the owner, of course, will immediately buy a second 32GB memory plank, although Lenovo's greed is simply amazing at a price of 3500 euros and a penny cost of 64GB DDR5 4800 - it would be better if they immediately soldered LPDDR5 6000, which was promised in another laptop, namely "Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X" (see newest review), where even with the LPDDR5 5200 in reality (yes, yes, Lenovo simply cheated buyers here in psref for it), where the memory obviously works almost 2 times faster in dual-channel mode, which is clear you can see by the speed of the memory in the "Extreme" version in single-channel mode - it is enough to multiply the speed in single-channel by 2 times in the mind... Those, a laptop for 1150 euros from Lenovo turned out to be more than 1.5 times faster in terms of speed of ram. It turns out that the "Pro" version is cooler than the "Extreme", Lenovo? Is it okay, marketers?

We go further, picking substances "Extreme" from Lenovo. We look at the exhaust temperature - it again exceeds 50C and the exhaust definitely goes straight to the screen. How long will the panel electronics(limited for max 50-55C) last under such loads and temperatures above 50C, Lenovo? Here it is definitely an Extreme version - the probability of being left without a screen is maximum, with such prolonged loads and temperatures!

Now let's move to the videochip from NVidia. What we see in TDP is 95W, although in Legions 130-140. It is obvious that even up to a certain norm it falls short, not to mention the "Extreme" version.

Maybe it is "extremely" quiet, therefore, with an average load? Again, the owner is waiting for a complete fail. See newest review about notebookcheck.net/The-fastest-Core-i7-12700H-laptop-you-can-buy-Lenovo-Legion-5-15IAH7H-review.669755.0.html

Only 29.3dB@103W(L5)...vs...46dB@138W...  2.4kg vs. 2.1kg...
Every +6dB is twice as loud. Thus, the cheap(and faster) Legion 5 is about 5 times quieter according review, while consuming only 27% less in an "average" load. So which model do we really have "Extreme" in a good way and a bad way? Extreme noise? Oh, yes...

Maybe it consumes extremely little and therefore with extremely long battery life? And here is a fail.

Lenovo - please remove "Extreme" from the name, do not disgrace yourself. There is nothing "Extreme" here, because of which someone will reach for their wallet to shell out as much as 3500 euros. Well, maybe 1500...then it's ok for buy.

your comment was more useful to me than the review itself xD

Which laptop would you recommend to buy with 4k screen and can be dual channel up to 64 Gb of ram (or more). Up to 16 inches with Nvidia Gpu, it's mostly for Video editing and photoshop.

[NikoB]

Well, above was a reference to "Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X -
This is almost an ideal "system unit" for working in Photoshop. There are 4 outputs to 4k monitors (if TB4 are honest 2 x DP1.4b each), very fast memory for photoshop, there is a GTX3050 and i7 12700H, although not in the fastest mode.

And so for Photoshop, the best memory controller is naturally in i9 (AMD should not be taken in any case - they have brake memory controllers in laptops), if you find a laptop with 80Gb / s + for reading / writing / copying to ram and with the lowest possible latency. For professional work, 64GB of ram is better. And of course the GTX3060+ is better for processing effects.

4K screen is available in many models. It is more important here that the color space is close to ARGB, high contrast with an ideal gamma curve. And of course an honest 10-bit panel for working in 30-bit color. But I don't think it makes sense to work professionally in Photoshop on a laptop screen, except for select series like HP Dreamcolor screens (which apparently have a hardware-controlled 3D Lut), which are specially tailored for such things.

Typically, such models with i9, a good discrete and 2 memory slots, ready to work under powerful loads, are top-end "gaming" or professional series, where prices generally fly into space, but this price is not always adequate. The rest is a matter of personal taste - keyboard, touch, case, etc.

[HVA]

My P1 Gen 5 has been perfect. You can make your own fan curve in TPfancontrol and fix both the heat and thermal throttling like that. Mine is 12800H + A4500 for context.

[LoneWolf]

I own a P1 Gen 5 myself (i7-12800H, RTX A3000 12GB, 2 x 16GB LPDDR5, 2TB SK Hynix P41 Platinum SSD, and the 2560 x 1600 165Hz display).

I have found the laptop to be a mixed bag.  On the upside, the display is amazing, and the refresh rate is silky smooth, the best LCD I've ever had on a system. I'm also a huge fan of Lenovo bringing back 16:10; this is the aspect ratio laptop screens should have always had IMO (I can't stand 1080 compared to 1200 either). The RTX A3000 (rev.2 card) is probably a very slight bump from the 3060 due to more RAM and a little bit higher clock speeds, and performance is very good there. The speakers are reasonable. The laptop itself is also light when not toting the power brick around.

The downsides are the keyboard being reasonable but not amazing like the 1.8mm travel models, a giant 230-watt power slab, some fan noise (although at least its a whoosh, and not harsh), heat output, and CPU throttling. I've also experienced an issue where the unit would wake from sleep even with the lid closed; this actually cooked the mainboard and bricked the system. Thankfully I have 2-year Premier coverage (and back up my Bitlocker key), and it was taken care of within 4-5 days (there was a brief parts shortage that delayed things), but now I have the system set to hibernate on lid close because I no longer trust sleep mode (my suspicion is this is an Intel-Microsoft issue, not Lenovo's, but I'm not eager to have it happen again.

My experience has led me to look back and say that while performance potential is definitely higher than the previous generation, if one doesn't need it, I'd stick with the 11th-gen i-CPU ThinkPads and wait. What I really want (and hope I'll see in the future) is a 14" ThinkPad T14 or P14s with a 1920 x 1200 165Hz display, a more efficient processor (I'd probably go i7 U-series), I'd probably stick with Iris XE 96EU graphics on dual-channel LPDDR5, and a return of the 1.5mm keyboard. I'd also consider an X1 or P1 with just the Iris XE 96EU, a P-series i7, and a smaller power brick, again wanting the 1.5mm keyboard.

[NikoB]

This clearly says that your model and in general the new Thinkpad models are complete junk in terms of reliability.

My Thinkpad T 14" series 2010 with 35W processor still with HDD 7200 (with fall/acceleration sensor) was turned on once in a hurry in 2011 (because need to hold the power off button for more than 2 seconds in this series) and in switch on state wrapped to plastic bag(It was raining and I didn't want to risk it.) and put in a closed bag. Since it was rush hour and traffic jams were 10 points on a working day, and I urgently needed to go to the other end of the city, I took the metro. The journey took 1.5 hours, and the metro was also crowded and the bag was often dangling back and forth. When I opened the bag almost 2 hours later, I was stunned - it literally smelled of haze, hot air, I thought that the HDD was covered with a copper basin, like the laptop as a whole, but they were in order and after that it worked under heavy load for another 10 years before summer 2022 and when the motherboard suddenly burned out and there is nowhere to buy a new one, although the case and screen are in order and there was an eSATA port that I needed so much, with which I test all new HDDs in stores when buying for defects. And now there are no more laptops with eSATA, which is very sad. The HDD from HGST is still in good condition although it has long been replaced by an SSD.